Key Bindings

[Grahmrook 6]

So I was reading a thread on the General WoW forums regarding raid guilds requesting pics of folk's UIs.  It turned to a discussion of the raid guild being interested in peoples key bindings.  Ultimately my question is what are common resto shaman keybinds?  Is there a set up that some people think just makes more sense?  Are there certain things people feel are "required" binds. 

 

Thanks in advance!

[Stoove 347]

In my opinion, "required" is a bit subjective. I have to say, my binds have changed a bit since I got myself an MMO mouse (12 extra mouse buttons and something like 48 new combinations makes for easy keybinding). However, here are a few that work for me:

 

• I have my heals bound to clicks on the raid frames. Left click is Healing Wave. Right is Riptide. Shift+left is Healing Surge and Shift+right is GHW. Ctrl+left is Chain Heal. All of these are extremely easy to reach and I use them literally without thinking. :)
• Before I had my new mouse, I used F for Healing Rain (Fire Nova in Enhancement spec), Tab for Earthbind, R for some important things (often WIndwalk).
• My cooldowns are always set to Shift + Key combos. F is Spirit Link, G is Healing Tide, R is Spiritwalker's Grace, T is Mana Tide, V is Ancestral Guidance, H is Heroism, Space is Ascendance. It's a lot to remember! It works really well though, so well that I kept them there even after I got my new mouse.
• Healing Stream Totem used to be bound to Mouse button 4 (thumb button) and Ghost Wolf to Shift+MB4. These days they're in the same place in relation to my thumb. That works exceedingly well!

However, if there is one keybind that has saved more lives, got more bosses killed, and generally been the most awesome and reliable bind ever, it's Spacebar = Wind Shear. Bind this. Learn it. You will never miss an interrupt again. :)

 

Was that roughly what you were looking for?

[Grahmrook 6]

Perfect and amazing, thank you!  I like the spacebar for wind shear.  I am going to bind and practice it. :)

[kitsu 55]

there could be a situation where you need to jump though. i like wind shear as F. pointer finger ftw. i keep spacebar as jump and bound stopcasting to shift+spacebar.

 

i rebound all the keys around WASD to shift plus that key. so reply is now Shift+R instead of just R and so on. So I have R,T,F,G, Z, X, C, V all bound to things. R astral shift, T water shield, F shear, G purge, V grounding totem (i pvp sometimes and v is also a very quick reach once you train it) X is earth ele and C is Fire ele. Z is my macro that tells earth ele to buff me, i bet you could get fire ele in the same macro but i like fire ele to attack.

 

i have the Steelseries Cata mouse so all my totem heal cds and rain are on that.

 

i have the function keys bound as well, F3 is hex, F1 is always my pvp trinket on every toon, F2 is always my lock rock on all toons. i use natures swiftness and AG, those are bound to 3 and 4. i have surge bound to 6 in case anything goes wrong with my healing frames, which has actually never happened.

 

I have a huge Tell Me When icon that shows if my cleanse is on cd because if someone snipes your despell you need to know fast to get the next person. 

[kitsu 55]

 Wind Shear. Bind this. Learn it. 

 

every class i play that isnt a shaman bugs me a little because it doesnt have wind shear. it's tough to live without it.

[Stoove 347]

there could be a situation where you need to jump though. i like wind shear as F. pointer finger ftw. i keep spacebar as jump and bound stopcasting to shift+spacebar.

 

You can rebind jump to z, which isn't normally an important key. Problem solved! :)

 

Oh and before my mouse (It's a Logitech G600 btw) I had Hex and Bind Elemental to Shift+Tab and Ctrl+Tab respectively. That actually worked really well!

[Stoove 347]

Also, I put a picture of my old UI in this thread, so you can see it for reference. It's changed a lot recently, but that's what I was dealing with when I was using these keybinds.

[Pandacho 286]

My heals are on clicks too, with slight difference from Stoove's. Left click - healing wave, right click - chain heal, Shift+Left click - GHW, Shift+right click - Healing Surge, mouse roll up - dispell, mouse roll down - Riptide. Ctrl+Left click - target, Ctrl+right click - focus, "-" - Healing Rain, Q - HST, D - Earth Shild on mouseover, E - Wing Shear. Heroism is on F11-F12 - the farest buttons to prevent accidental use (there were accidents:))

All my healing CDs are on F1-F8 to prevent accidental use too (when i want to chat and don't press Enter properly and just blow all my CDs...)

Edited January 10, 2014 by Trollsha

[Stoove 347]

My click binds are rooted in what I thought was important waaaaaaaay back in Wrath of the Lich King, but by now they're so ingrained that I can't change them :(

[Fsharpmajor 0]

Ever since I healed as a holy priest back in Wrath, all of my healers have had all of their heals bound to the NUMBER PAD or around the number pad on my keyboard. It is just such a nice cluster of keys that you really don't use in any other situation. It does take some getting used to to have your hand that far over and that close to your other hand, but it's something I got used to rather quickly.

 

*All of my direct-cast spell are macroed to be used on mouseover. I use these in combination with Grid to throw out heals quite quickly

 

0  = Spiritwalker's Grace

. = Spirit Link Totem

1 = Healing Stream Totem

Shift+1 = Call of the Elements

2 = Dispel

3 = Healing Tide Totem

4 = Riptide

5 = Chain Heal

6 = Healing Wave

7 = Earth Shield (macroed to focus [read: tank])

8 = Healing Rain

9 = Greater Healing Wave (macroed with Ancestral Swiftness)

+ = Healing Surge

/ = Ascendance

* = Lightning Bolt (for Telluric Currents)(macroed to focus' target)

Page Up = Earth Elemental Totem

Page Down = Fire Elemental Totem

 

That's pretty much it I think. I'm still trying to find a way to fit Unleash Elements into this scheme. I've gotten quite used to moving around by using the actual arrow keys with my pinky and my mouse in tandem.

Edited January 11, 2014 by Fsharpmajor

[Strawser 8]

I personally use my Naga for most of my binds as resto, since there aren't too many. I also suggest using your Function (F1-F10) keys w/ modifiers (Alt, ctrl, shift) for some quick binds. Don't forget to use your tilde (`) key with modifiers! Super useful.

EDIT: Pre-coffee buff grammar sucks. Again.

Edited January 15, 2014 by Strawser

[Stoove 347]

Don't forget to use your tilde (`) key with modifiers! Super useful.

 

I never thought of that!

 

Another thing that my RL discovered yesterday to his delight was the concept of binding a speed boost to Shift+W. Just think about it. It's a fantastic idea :)

[Strawser 8]

I never thought of that!

 

Another thing that my RL discovered yesterday to his delight was the concept of binding a speed boost to Shift+W. Just think about it. It's a fantastic idea

That's absolutely freaking brilliant. I use my tilde key for my Spirit Walk, but for a belt if I ever level engineering, Shift-W Would be amazing. Definitely trying it out.

[Cup 10]

I use mouseover for all targeted healing spells. Binds:

 

1 - Earth Shield

2 - Healing Wave

3 - Healing Surge 

4 - Rip Tide

5 - Healing Rain

6 - Nature's Swiftness (NS + Greater Healing Wave if I have a target)

 

Shift 1 - Unleash 

s2 - Greater Healing Wave

s3 - Dispell

s4 - Chain Heal

s5 - Spiritwalk

s6 - Flame Shock

 

´ - Ghost Wolf

G - Defensive talent of choice

sG - Frost Shock

F - Purge

sF - Spirit Link

T - Healing Stream

sT - Healing Tide

R - Interrupt

sR - Lightning Bolt

X - Ascendance

[CptDan 25]

I am enjoying this thread. Right now I use vuhdo to manage my healing frames. I started using it ages ago and I am resistant to change like a grumpy old man. I then use the number keys for offensive spells which I started doing back in my pvp days. So my lightning bolt, roots, searing etc. are there with a separate bar for cool downs and totems.

I might try some of the ideas here (especially the tilde)

[TheDeceived 0]

I'm using a Razer Naga at home, which has really upped my ability to react a lot quicker to things going on in raids/PvP. I decided to take the approach of listing all the spells I use and then grouping them by type to have them all located in similar areas on my mouse/keyboard (healing, shocks, castable DPS spells etc). I think the thing that needs to work the most with keybinds is making sure they work no matter what your spec.

 

So after grouping, I found there was luckily enough buttons on my Naga to cover most of my keybinds (the Naga effectively has the 12 numpad buttons from a keyboard on the left hand side of it, allowing your thumb to do all the work, picture can be seen here http://mashable.com/wp-content/gallery/razer-naga-molten-special-edition-gaming-mouse/razer-molten-2.jpg). I've set my Naga to mimic numpad presses rather than the 1-0 buttons across the top of the keyboard too.

 

As well as there being enough buttons, the buttons are grouped in themselves to help familiarise yourself with the different types of spell a Shaman can use. For example, we have three shocks and as the Naga has 4 rows of 3 buttons, it seemed to make sense to use one row for the three shocks so I know where they are regardless of my spec. Another good example is the totems as it's rare that you use more than 3 totem of each spell type (earth, air, water, fire) and so having the four different spell types of totems on each row of buttons on the Naga also seemed to make sense.

 

When changing specs, all the core abilities stay in the same place with the same keybind. The spec specific spells are simply swapped out for whatever spec you're in (for example, Riptide is replaced with Elemental Blast or Stormstrike etc). I also avoid keybinding anything that isn't required during combat (Astral Recall, Hearthstone, Water Walking etc) to free up as many buttons as possible and to keep confusion over where each ability is to a minimum.

 

Below is my keybinds for my Enhance spec to give an idea of grouping (the alternating colours below show the different rows of buttons on the Naga to help show the grouping).

 

Naga Keybinds:

1 - Stormstrike

2 - Lavalash

3 - Feral Spirit

4 - Flame Shock

5 - Earth Shock

6 - Frost Shock

7 - Unleashed Elements

8 - Lightning Bolt

9 - Chain Lightning

10 - Spiritwalker's Grace

11 - Ascendance

12 - Bloodlust

 

CTRL + 1 - Fire Elemental Totem

CTRL + 2 - Searing Totem

CTRL + 3 - Magma Totem

CTRL + 4 - Earth Elemental Totel

CTRL + 5 - Tremor Totem

CTRL + 6 - Earthbind Totem

CTRL + 7 - Healing Stream Totem

CTRL + 8 - Healing Tide Totem

CTRL + 9 - Ancestral Guidance (I know not technically a totem but this row on my Naga represents healing to me)

CTRL + 10 - Grounding Totem

CTRL + 11 - Capacitor Totem

CTRL + 12 - Windwalk Totem

 

Keyboard:

1 - Healing Surge

2 - Chain Heal

3 - Healing Rain

4 - Cleanse Spirit

 

SHIFT 1 - Windfury Weapon

SHIFT 2 - Flametongue Weapon

SHIFT 3 - Lightning Shield

SHIFT 4 - Water Shield

 

Q - Hex

SHIFT + Q - Bind Elemental

E - Wind Shear

R - Astral Shift

F - Shamanistic Rage

X - Purge

` (next to the 1 button) - Ghost Wolf

SHIFT + ` (next to the 1 button)  - Spirit Walk

Edited February 5, 2014 by TheDeceived

[CptDan 25]

Since we got this conversation rolling again, and I do feel that this is an important topic I wanted to point out that when making radical changes to your keybinds or UI you really need to practice these over and over again in a non critical setting.

 

Healing, especially at the higher levels and HC is all about muscle memory. Not only are you focusing on keeping everyone alive, managing cooldowns and reading messages about the encounter, you are watching your feet, moving out of fire, moving to the next point in the encounter mechanics all while being yelled at over vent/mumble to "big heals, big heals" (as if I was focused on only using the smallest heals :D) It becomes imperative that as many things as possible are almost automatic. You don't want to miss time a raid cool down because you couldn't find it right away.

 

That said, I do love this thread. Sometimes we tunnel stat priorities and spell choice and forget that having a good UI can make as big or more of an impact. I incorporated the usage of the ~ key and it has been a great find. I haven't been able to switch to the spacebar for wind shear as I have that as a mouse over macro and one of the buttons on my MMO mouse.

 

If you really want to see some amazing key binds look at the PVP section for your particular class. in PVP it demands that are mobile, and offensive while maintaining your defensive abilities.